CRT Press Release- plans to help residents and boaters get along in Islington

[Leo No2]

Have asked the mods to update the title to make it more relevant - thanks Mods.

 

NEW PLANS TO HELP BOATERS AND RESIDENTS GET ALONG IN ISLINGTON

Waterway charity Canal & River Trust is announcing a series of measures to improve relationships between boaters and residents at the popular visitor moorings on the Regents Canal in Islington.

 

Some local residents have complained of noise and smoke coming from the boats, while some boaters feel they are being unfairly penalised for going about their way of life. The Trust is committed to supporting the needs of boaters and residents alike and will be working with Islington Council, sharing expertise and data, to resolve the situation.

 

The measures, which focus on reducing noise and smoke at the moorings and encouraging a greater turnover of boats, include:

 

- Making Islington visitor moorings a Quiet Zone, including limiting engine and generator noise to background level;

- Daily weekday sightings of boats by the Trusts enforcement team, with prompt warning letters when boaters are staying too long or behaving anti-socially;

- Mooring to be kept to a single line of boats in winter, with a maximum of two abreast in the summer;

- Looking into recruiting monthly rotating Caretaker Boaters who will advise and provide information to boaters, report local incidents, and liaise with residents and agencies;

- New signs to reinforce Quiet Zone messages and mooring arrangements;

- Two new part-time Mooring Rangers on the towpath, including at weekends, to provide information, raise awareness of boating protocols, and implement mooring rules; and

- Investing in a DEFRA-funded project for an Environmental Health apprentice to provide boaters with environmental advice, training and assessments.

 

The Trust consulted with boater groups, local residents and Islington Council between 20 September and 4 October 2013. The resulting plan is a trial that will be reviewed after four months, during which time the Trust will be carrying out continuous monitoring of its effectiveness.

 

Sorwar Ahmed, boating liaison manager at Canal & River Trust, said: Boats have been part of the fabric of Islington life since the Regents Canal was dug 200 years ago. Today, many people still choose to make their home on the water, and Londons canals are more popular than ever. Just as a house needs heating and lighting, boaters need to keep themselves warm and to generate electricity. In busy locations such as Islington, this can cause tensions with the people who live alongside the canal, as engine noise and smoke is part of life on the cut.

 

The majority of boaters follow the requirements of keeping noise to an acceptable level, not running their generators between 8pm and 8am, and only burning clean fuel. However, there are some people who dont stick to these rules and we hope our new plans will make them think and change their behaviour.

 

We know that views about what should be done are polarised, with residents wanting tougher measures and boaters unhappy about having more restrictions placed on them. We have to make a balanced judgment and see what can be done to improve the situation as it stands at the moment. We think our plans can do this and we are working with Islington Council to monitor things such as smoke, noise and use of moorings, which we will publish so boaters and residents can see how things are changing.

 

For more information on the Islington Visitor Moorings Management plan, and the consultation, please visit: http://canalrivertrust.org.uk/about-us/consultations/completed-consultations

 

ENDS

 

For further media requests please contact:

Fran Read, national press officer, Canal & River Trust

t 020 3204 4429 m 07796 610 427 e fran.read@canalrivertrust.org.uk

Edited November 20, 2013 by Leo No2

[Beaker]

Seems fair enough to me.

[alan_fincher]

Making Islington visitor moorings a Quiet Zone, including limiting engine and generator noise to background level

 

 

I wonder what that means?

 

I'm guessing there is no legal definition of what "background noise level" means in respect of boat engines or generators.

 

Even if they provide a definition of "maximum xx dB at yy metres away", how will a boater know if they are at "background level" or not, unless they have equipment to measure it.

 

There could be a popcorn opportunity here, I think.

[Lady Muck]

Well Islington council have funded a worker to go and test noise and pollution levels at that site. They don't really mention it in detail in this release but that's what they are doing.

[alan_fincher]

Well Islington council have funded a worker to go and test noise and pollution levels at that site. They don't really mention it in detail in this release but that's what they are doing.

....... So presumably the name, home address, home and mobile phone numbers and (at least!) the inside leg measurement of that worker are fully disclosed in the non redacted data they have provided for their FOIA response!

[Lady Muck]

Probably!

[Guest]

Who is ensuring the local residents noise is under control???

[FadeToScarlet]

Who is ensuring the local residents noise is under control???

Their neighbours- the amount of net-curtain-twitching, and punitive ignoring when encountering an offender in Waitrose, puts them off

[casper ghost]

Who is ensuring the local residents noise is under control???

It is a good point, all the measures mean the boaters having to adhere to something, nothing mentioned regarding the local residents giving a bit.

It's just like BWB, bend over backwards to keep house dwellers happy.

Casp'

[junior]

Does anyone know which "boater groups" it was they worked with?

 

From a boaters point of view it looks reasonably fair, although perhaps some London CC'ers may have a different view. I can see the loss of 8 mooring places over the winter months being problem though. Those 8 boats will have to go somewhere else and there genuinely seems to be not a lot of space elsewhere.

 

I'd be very interested to know what the local residents reactions are to this announcement. Having read through almost all of the emails in the FOI request that was released yesterday, the impression I got is that they are anti-boater and don't want to see any smoke or ever hear a generator. I can't see these new guidelines stopping either.

[homer2911]

Who is ensuring the local residents noise is under control???

Is there any recorded instance of a boater having cause to complain about a nearby resident's car engine left running for hours on end, or of a chimney two or three floors up emitting excessive smoke?

[Taslim]

Their neighbours- the amount of net-curtain-twitching, and punitive ignoring when encountering an offender in Waitrose, puts them off

Invisible green one.

[Guest]

Is there any recorded instance of a boater having cause to complain about a nearby resident's car engine left running for hours on end, or of a chimney two or three floors up emitting excessive smoke?

I don't know homer..do you?

 

You buy a house near a church you expect bells...

[Lady Muck]

Does anyone know which "boater groups" it was they worked with?

London Boaters, NABO, IWA, RBOA, ACC off the top of my head. Local residents were consulted as well. But I've not had the press release yet! I know some boaters won't be pleased, but they've had to do a similar scheme on the K&A and the signage and guidelines were based on that. The Caretaker Boat idea is something developed within London Boaters. We do need moorings wardens back in place in London, we didn't have half as many issues when we did have them.

It's just like BWB, bend over backwards to keep house dwellers happy.

In my experience all through this CRT have been very fair. It's true that some residents just do not want any boats and if they'd got what they wanted, then I reckon there would be no mooring there any more. But this situation is also not fair on the boaters that moor there - the abuse that they have had from residents is really aggressive. Going from cameras being stuck through your windows, to being screamed at. Can be very intimidating. Imagine if someone barged into their homes and started to criticise how they lived. Cruel and intrusive.

Edited November 20, 2013 by Lady Muck

[FadeToScarlet]

I don't know homer..do you?

You buy a house near a church you expect bells...

You buy a house near a canal, and you expect brightly painted "barges" mooring up occasionally outside, crewed by picturesque people who nevertheless have good manners, who leave you space so you can feed the ducks with the grandchildren, and which are heated and powered silently, smokelessly, and unobtrusively.

 

You don't necessarily expect breasted up Springers and Harborough marine boats with stuff on the roof, smoky chimneys, and loud two stroke generators or thumping aircooled Listers until 8pm or later.

 

(Of course not all London liveaboards are like this, but some are)

 

My point is that people buying a house near a canal may well have a very warped and different picture in their heads, and very different expectations, to reality.

[Jerra]

My point is that people buying a house near a canal may well have a very warped and different picture in their heads, and very different expectations, to reality.

Is that a reason for changing reality to suit their rose tinted spectacles?

[alan_fincher]

It may also be the case that the complainants arr not all newcomers to their houses, and have in fact been putting up with an increasingly deteriorating situation over recent years, and have now reached breaking point.

 

I'm not saying that is definitely the case, but what is not in doubt is that the number of live-aboards in central London continues to steadily move ever upwards, but that no new moorings become available to match demand.

 

Add to that the fact that places previously considered "safe" like Kensal Green and Vicky Park now seem to be very much dodgier places on occasions to have your boat, and I think people will try and congregate even more on the most popular places, and push to the limits the numbers of boats they try and moor abreast of each other.

 

I don't have that much very recent experience of London, but would still be surprised if my generic utterances are that far off the mark. I know one gets pilloried for such claims, but it is one of the few parts of the canals that I would say is just about "full".

[Lady Muck]

Islington moorings suffers from 'canyoning' though, it's a cutting next to the tunnel and all the fumes and generator noise gets amplified and funnelled. I do think we have to be mindful and most London Boaters are, infact one of our number used to live next to another VM before she bought her boat and says that she can remember times quite often when she couldn't open the windows in her flat due to the wood smoke and noise. Islington VMs have been double moored as long as I've had my boat at least.

 

I think to act like it doesn't affect people on the bankside at all is a bit disrespectful. We usually try to sort issues ourselves. We have in the past been contacted by residents who weren't happy about boats being fitted out right under their windows, we've actually visited these residents and the boater involved, the dispute has been settled reasonably and we haven't had to involve CRT at all.

It may also be the case that the complainants arr not all newcomers to their houses, and have in fact been putting up with an increasingly deteriorating situation over recent years, and have now reached breaking point.

 

I'm not saying that is definitely the case, but what is not in doubt is that the number of live-aboards in central London continues to steadily move ever upwards, but that no new moorings become available to match demand.

 

Add to that the fact that places previously considered "safe" like Kensal Green and Vicky Park now seem to be very much dodgier places on occasions to have your boat, and I think people will try and congregate even more on the most popular places, and push to the limits the numbers of boats they try and moor abreast of each other.

 

I don't have that much very recent experience of London, but would still be surprised if my generic utterances are that far off the mark. I know one gets pilloried for such claims, but it is one of the few parts of the canals that I would say is just about "full".

What Alan says and the residents I've met myself have lived there a very long time. And if there are more boats there will be more stoves and more smoke and it will be more noticeable.

[Lady Muck]

Is there any recorded instance of a boater having cause to complain about a nearby resident's car engine left running for hours on end, or of a chimney two or three floors up emitting excessive smoke?

I've heard of boaters being kept awake by noisy balcony parties in these areas, yes.

[Guest]

I've heard of boaters being kept awake by noisy balcony parties in these areas, yes.

 

This of course was what was behind my earlier post. Being pragmatic for a sec there clearly must be some problem boaters at that site potentially giving all boaters a bad name but when I read that press release it all reads very very one sided to me.

 

I would though wager some pretty influential people live in the local housing there and CRT have come under considerable pressure to do something, and do it in a way that didn't unduly impact on the local Tories and champagne socialists householders.

[Lady Muck]

I'd wager that we boaters have had far more anti social behaviour against us.

 

There are a handful of boaters doing silly things like chopping wood or running a genny in the early hours. All it takes is for one person to tell them to stop - a caretaker boater would do this - much better than screaming abuse at every single boater who comes along and intimidating them by taking photos and making notes about them.

[GUMPY]

If the residents of Noel road are behaving like this you have to ask what has pushed them to be this way?

The Island Queen used to be my local years ago and residents used to get along with boaters its only in recent years that the boaters have pissed off the locals.

[Lady Muck]

Well as I said, if there were moorings wardens there to have a quiet word (like there used to be), I don't think we'd have half as many problems.

[dave.e]

We went down to London and along the Regents Canal to Limehouse in May 2011, and again in May 2013. In just two years, the number of moored boats had increased noticeably and it was difficult to find anywhere for visiting boats to moor. Since then, we are constantly meeting boats on the GU that are heading for London with the aim of living there. It must surely reach the point soon when there is no more room?

[Lady Muck]

We went down to London and along the Regents Canal to Limehouse in May 2011, and again in May 2013. In just two years, the number of moored boats had increased noticeably and it was difficult to find anywhere for visiting boats to moor. Since then, we are constantly meeting boats on the GU that are heading for London with the aim of living there. It must surely reach the point soon when there is no more room?

We said it was getting busy five years ago, because the visitor moorings were always full back then (albeit single moored) but what has happened is that now boaters moor where there didn't used to be any boats - all the way through Hackney on the Lee for instance, that used to be totally empty. Those of us who have boated in London for a while, we would never have moored in those places, ever. Plus the overcrowding when everyone got budged up for the Olympics I think has meant that boaters now double and triple moor as standard, didn't see much evidence of that before the Olympics.

 

I've not boated through town since 2011, have been skint and on a river only license! But I went in my friends van, to collect something from a boater in Kings X this year and was surprised to see it triple berthed in places.

 

Funnily enough it's been quiet up here in Tottenham, I've seen it much busier - but just like you, we keep meeting new boaters heading South after craning in at Stanstead Abbots, they all say the same thing - heading for Little Venice and Angel. But you can't all be there at once! Of course, they don't all last the distance, some love it, but others are unprepared for how different it is to living in a flat and how hard work it can be. But even if they leave the canal, the boats tend to stay. And like Alan says, it might be completely packed out in some locations and tumbleweed in others, depends on crime. But how far off are we from total jam packedness everywhere? One year? Three Years? Who knows?

 

I've just had more info from CRT - they say they will be putting more rings in to compensate for the loss of moorings at Noel Road.

 

But I'm suprised that CRT don't do more to encourage double berthing on the permanent online moorings on the Lee - it's not like the river isn't deep or wide enough. It might even help some of us out who are struggling to afford our mooring fees - mine has gone from under £2k pa. to £3.5k pa in eight years.

Edited November 21, 2013 by Lady Muck